Fix corrupt NTFS partition?

[throwitout]

I'm trying to fix what looks like a corrupt NTFS partition on a HP
Media center PC.

Initial symptoms were that the machine would show the POST screen,
then show a blinking cursor in the upper left and not boot, giving no
errors. F8 will not offer Safe-mode options. I believe the user may
have been improperly restarting the computer when this started.

Pressing F10 at boot will still bring up the HP recovery environment.

The PC will not boot into recovery console from a Windows CD because
it doesn't recognize a valid file system on c:

The Windows installation CD lists the HP Recovery partition as FAT32
as the second partition, but an "unknown" partition with the remaining
balance of the hard drive size. I did not touch the partitions from
here, I was just checking to see if they were still valid.

Booting the machine from the BartPE "Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows", My
Computer lists Drive C: as "RAW File system" Free / used 0 bytes, and
it lists H: as a the valid HP_Recovery partition.

None of the scandisk tools on the CD will recognize the partition.

TestDisk:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Will recognize the partition as "HPFS-NTFS" with the proper volume
name and recognized will recognize the recovery partition as "FAT32
LBA".

I tried running the "Repair MFT" and "Rebuild BS" options.

Currently it lists "Boot sector Status: OK" and "Backup boot sector
status: OK" "Sectors are identical"

When i select Repair MFT it quickly flashes the message "Failed to
open inode: Input/Output error."
Offers to "Fix MFT mirror" I select yes, it responds "MFT mirror
fixed"

Going to "repair BS" it says "Use MFT from 786432, confirm?" I select
yes
"
Sectors per cluster: 8
MFT LCN 786432
MFTMIRR LCN 16
Mft record size: 1024

filesystem size 470206422
MFT LCN 786432
MFTMIRR LCN 16
Mft record size: 1024
clusters_per_mft_record: -10 ???????
Clusters_per_index_record 1
Extrapolated boot sector and current boot sector are identical.
"
If I go into the list feature of TestDisk it will show me the correct
file structure of the partition, and of the couple files I tried using
the copy function on, they copied to the BartPE RAM drive correctly.
However the partition will still not appear to be valid in BartPE or
any other application, even after a reboot.

Is there any other free recovery tools that might let me fix this semi
corrupt NTFS partition?

 

[sgopus]

I think your best bet is to format the partition and do a reinstall of the os.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

It is worth using the hard drive manufacturer's test software before you
follow sgopus's good advice. You may as well check the drive.

 

[Robert Mitchell [MSFT]]

Part of the problem you are having is that you are mixing terms. Terms
like 'partition', 'file system', and 'NTFS' are commonly and mistakenly
interchanged. Here is a quick way to look at them to keep it all
straight...

Partition - A box that contains a file system
File system - A method of storing files
NTFS - A type of file system
FAT - A type of file system

If your NTFS is showing up as RAW...that means you have a file system
issue, not a partition issue. So all the fixing that can be done with
Partition Magic or any other partition repair utility will not actually
help you.

You can try running a CHKDSK on your file system as it can fix some of the
issues that will prevent us from mounting a faulty NTFS. However, if that
doesn't help, you are most likely going to need to contact Microsoft or a
regular data recover company.

There are some file system recovery tools out there, but I can't make any
recommendations about them.

I hope this helps,

Robert Mitchell
Microsoft PSS

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Edit: All this is good reason to ALWAYS partition your drive into 2 (or
more logical drives). One that only contains ONLY the OS and some
program files, put ALL your data (downloads, pics, music, docs whatever)
onto the other partition. Then if you need to reformat/reinstall, you
dont lose data.

I completely disagree. That's a very poor reason for putting your data
on a second partition.

It implies that you don't backup your data to external media. It
further implies that you think the need to reformat/reinstall is the
greatest risk to your data. But in fact the greatest risks are
entirely different. What you suggest leaves you susceptible to
simultaneous loss of the original and backup to many of the most
common dangers: hard drive crashes, severe power glitches, nearby
lightning strikes, virus attacks, even theft of the computer.

If your data is important to you, you need to institute a program of
regular backup, and that should be the way you protect your data.
Putting your data on a second partition is a good thing to do for
*some* people, but not for the reason you state.

And we all know about 'Windows Bloat' som doing a
reinstall every 6 months or so is nevver a bad thing

I completely disagree with this too. The only people who need to do
that--even if much less often than every six months--are those people
who do a poor job of maintaining and protecting their systems. With a
modicum of care, it should never be necessary to reinstall Windows (XP
or any other version). I've run Windows 3.0, 3.1, WFWG 3.11, Windows
95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and now
Windows 7, each for the period of time before the next version came
out, and each on two or more machines here. I never reinstalled any of
them, and I have never had anything more than an occasional minor
problem.

Reinstalling may not be a bad thing but it's unnecessary and it's
typically a great deal of work, if you've invested any time in
configuring Windows and your applications the way you want them.

and having 2
partitions makes this all so much easier. I dont mean this to infer you
dont need to back up the 2nd 'Data' partition regularly to,

On the contrary, that's exactly what your statement above ("Then if
you need to reformat/reinstall, you dont lose data") implies. With a
good program of backup in place, even if you do need to
reformat/reinstall, you don't lose data.

 

[Tim Meddick]

This thread seems to be orphaned...

In addition, it seems the discussion has progressed away from that of the
original subject line of the thread to that of registry health....

I just wanted to make an observation / comment on that point....

Win98's Scanreg.exe (& scanregw.exe) worked well as a daily registry backup
& restore utility.

However, when it came to using the "optimize" and "fix" options, I found it
to be highly destructive to the registry, often leaving Windows unbootable!

When it comes to the registry, most usernet users seem to believe that
registry "bloat" is a myth and that reg-cleaner utilities are, at best, all
so much (and I quote) "snake oil" !!

But, as with Win98, the NT-based registry (NT4, 2K, XP, Vista & Win7) does
need to be backed-up and, as you pointed out, there is no equivalent to
[Scanreg.exe] in XP.

But, with a little searching and re-searching, it's relatively easy to
learn where the NT-based registry is physically distributed and how to make
back-ups of those files that make it up.

One [free] utility that teaches you about how to do this, by understanding
it's operation, is ERUNT.exe(#1) (google : "ERUNT download").

On XP registry maintenance ; there is little that any responsible PC
advisor can say, as anyone using a commercial reg-cleaning app puts the
working functionality of their system at risk by using one.

Personally I do believe in the progressive handicap of the ongoing increase
in registry sizes due to installing then uninstalling applications that
then don't bother to clean their many reg-entries on departure.

Though I have found the old Win98 [regclean.exe] program(#2) still works
with XP and has been very useful in trawling for truly orphaned registry
entries. I have, to date, not seen it ever try to delete any currently
valid reg-values.

(#1 ERUNT.exe http://www.aumha.org/downloads/erunt-setup.exe)
(#2 [regclean.exe] program http://www.cstsoft.com/downloads/regclean.zip)

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[wilby]

Hi Tim:

I totally agree with you about ERunt. I use it to automatically back up
my registry (win 7/64 pro) the first time I boot, each day.

Erunt has saved me from myself many times, reg restores are very easy
and always work as expected.

I have turned off the Win backup and rely completely on ERunt.

Wilby

 

[Tim Meddick]

Hi Wilby,
If you rely exclusively on the ERUNT registry backup
utility, then, if you have not already done so, I would advise you to look
into where ERUNT saves the registry [hive] files and it's advice on the
differing methods of restoring them.

This is important for one BIG reason : it's all very well to rely on
ERUNT's own restore exe (ERDNT.EXE - a copy saved alongside each back-up),
but, it can only be used if the registry is still bootable (even if only in
safe-mode) as it runs only under Windows.

How would go about restoring the files in a ERUNT backup folder, if the
system won't boot because of damaged registry?

You will also find a copy of a file called ERUNT.CON (the "CON" is for
"console") and is supplied for use with the Recovery Console "BATCH"
command.

All this information can be found in the ERUNT help documentation, and
if learnt from, will enable anyone to create their own registry backups and
methods of restore which do not rely on Windows having to have a currently
working, bootable registry in order to restore a good, working copy.

You should also know how to install the Recovery Console to the
local-drive as a regular boot-up start-menu item, with the [winnt32.exe
/cmdcons] command. See the Win help documentation ;

hh.exe c:\windows\help\bootcons.chm::/recovery_install_console.htm

(or search: "Recovery Console" > "Installing as a startup option" in
Windows Help)

....for more info on this.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[wilby]

Hi Wilby,
If you rely exclusively on the ERUNT registry backup utility, then, if
you have not already done so, I would advise you to look into where
ERUNT saves the registry [hive] files and it's advice on the differing
methods of restoring them.

This is important for one BIG reason : it's all very well to rely on
ERUNT's own restore exe (ERDNT.EXE - a copy saved alongside each
back-up), but, it can only be used if the registry is still bootable
(even if only in safe-mode) as it runs only under Windows.

How would go about restoring the files in a ERUNT backup folder, if the
system won't boot because of damaged registry?

You will also find a copy of a file called ERUNT.CON (the "CON" is for
"console") and is supplied for use with the Recovery Console "BATCH"
command.

All this information can be found in the ERUNT help documentation, and
if learnt from, will enable anyone to create their own registry backups
and methods of restore which do not rely on Windows having to have a
currently working, bootable registry in order to restore a good, working
copy.

You should also know how to install the Recovery Console to the
local-drive as a regular boot-up start-menu item, with the [winnt32.exe
/cmdcons] command. See the Win help documentation ;

hh.exe c:\windows\help\bootcons.chm::/recovery_install_console.htm

(or search: "Recovery Console" > "Installing as a startup option" in
Windows Help)

...for more info on this.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Thanks Tim:
A few years ago when I installed ERUnt I read and understood the details
of what you are mentioning here. Amazing how my memory fades.

Your message made me re-read, and print, the ERUnt "read me" file.

Hopefully I can get it all operational if ever needed.


In addition, I am rather good about creating full disc images
frequently. This recovery process has been tested and proven several
times here. I like to know for sure that a partition image can be
installed on an empty drive, and then booted up. Acronis (paid for
version) and Macrium (free version) have been the most fool proof for my
Win 7/64.

Peace,

Wilby

 

[Tim Meddick]

Wilby,
You seem to have things covered with your disk image / restore
utilities.
If the problem is not one of "total global destruction", you could still
use the ERUNT utility to restore just a part of the registry first, and
still have the image restore option if needed.
I must look into the [free] imaging utility you mentioned (Macrium).

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.